THE CONVERSATION
THE CONVERSATION THE CONVERSATION Dialogue should have an interest of its own, aside from its function of characterization and suggestion of the circumstances. It should be made attractive, if possible, by wit, humor, brightness, or sheer individuality. The best way to accomplish this is by placing the characters in an interesting situation—EvELYN MAY AunucaT, The Short-Story. Our attention is held, as we turn over the magazine pages for rest and refreshment, not by solid chunks of unbroken paragraph, but by those stories that are variegated by conversation. As a rule, the lighter and frothier the story, the more will it effervesce and bubble-over with conversation, while the thought-breeding and serious narrative will be less and less "talky. " Nevertheless, the stories are few that win their way into print without being somewhere lightened by dialogue. Conversation may be used as a means to three chief ends — and several subordinate ends. 1. To Give Information "Information speeches" are not easy things to handle. When the inexperienced writer is adjured to let his characters tell their own story he will often, to his sorrow, make them ostentatiously and unnaturally drag in lumbering biographical facts, declaim their relation to other characters, or explicitly inform the reader of their race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Such bald and palpable artifice is sure to breed contempt. The information speech should be designed so skillfully as to conceal its design. Note in the following examples how time, place, character, and opening incident are all told in brief and well-handled dialogue: "Nor I, " cried John Harcourt, pulling up in the moon-silvered mist and clapping his hand to his pocket, "not a groat! Stay, here is a crooked sixpence of King James' that none but a fool would take. The merry robbers left me that for luck. " Dick Barton growled as he turned in his saddle. "We must ride on, then, till we find a cousin to loan us a few pounds. Sir Empty-purse fares ill at an inn. " "By my sore seat, " laughed Harcourt, "we'll ride no farther tonight. Here we light, at the sign of the Magpie in the Moon. The rogues of Farnborough Cross have trimmed us well; the honest folks of Market Farnborough shall feed us better!" "For a crooked sixpence!" grumbled Barton. "Will you beg our entertainment like a pair of landlopers, or will you take it by force like our late friends on the road?" "Neither, " said Harcourt, "but in the fashion that befits gentlemen — with a bold face, a gay tongue, and a fine coat well carried. Remember, Dick, look up, and no sniveling! Tell your ill fortune and you bid for more. 'Tis Monsieur Debonair that owns the tavern. "' "0 mother, mother, he can we let you go!" wailed Kathleen. "Kitty! how can you!" exclaimed Nancy. "What does it matter about us when mother has the long journey and father is so ill. " "It will not be for very long — it can't be, " said Mrs. Carey wistfully. "The telegram only said 'symptoms of typhoid, ' but these low fevers sometimes last a good while and are very weakening, so I may not be able to bring father back for two or three weeks; I ought to be in Fortress Monroe day after tomorrow; you must take turns in writing to me, children. " • To Advance the Plot • The conversation is sometimes made an integral part of the plot structure, when at critical points in the story dialogue is used to voice a catastrophe, to reveal a mystery, to make, in some way, a turning-point. The dramatic effect is rendered more vivid and forceful when a crisis is revealed by the spoken word. This has been very effectively done in "The Necklace, " by Guy de Maupassant, where the grand climax is presented in the form of the last speech by Mme. Forestier. • Mme. Forestier stopped. • " You say that you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine. " • "Yes. You never noticed it, then! They were very like. " And she smiled with a joy which was at once naive and proud. Mme. Forestier, strongly moved, took her two hands. • • "Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my neirMase was paste. It was • • worth at most five hundred francs!" • • To Reveal Character • Though Talleyrand said that language was given us in order to conceal our thoughts, such a misuse of the gift is not allowable in fiction. There, what a man thinks in his heart — which is what he is — must in some way be disclosed, and this can be skillfully done through his speech. Thus Ameera's mother, in Kipling's " Without Benefit of Clergy, " lets us know that she is greedy and tricky and careless regarding her daughter's death, by a word or two that she utters in response to the news, and that is far more effective than if the author had asserted those qualities in his own words. "Is she dead, sahib?" "She is dead. " "Then will I mourn, and afterwards take an inventory of the furniture in this house. For that will be mine. The sahib does not mean to resume it? It is so little, so very little, sahib, and I am an old woman. I would like to lie softly. " QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF ABOUT DIALOGUE Is it intrinsically interesting, and not merely true to life — is the talk really worth recording? Does every word of the dialogue serve some definite purpose in telling the story? Does each character talk throughout consistently with his own nature? Does the conversation perfectly fit the age, sex, nationality, education, station in life, mood, and present surroundings of the character speaking? Is the dialogue well differentiated so as to distinguish one character from another? Do the characters talk like real people, or do they converse on stilts? Do the characters try to say everything, instead of using hints and — using the expression in a good sense — suggestive language? Is the dialogue accompanied by expressive actions and gestures so as to cut out needless talk? Is the dialogue well introduced? Is dialogue well interspersed with action and explanation, or crowded all in a lump? Is there enough dialogue? What is the specific purpose of the dialogue in this story? Finally, does the dialogue actually serve the purpose for which it is evidently intended? QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES i. From an examination of a number of magazine short stories, make as large a list as you can of the different purposes which dialogue may serve in fiction; as, to convey information, to delineate the character of the speaker, etc. In each instance, make acutting of a short example and properly mark it for identification. a. What several purposes does dialogue serve in "The Dub?" (a) Criticize minutely the dialogue in any short-story you choose. (b) Alter the dialogue so as to improve it. Make a list of at least fifty past-participles which may be used in dialogue instead of "he said, "or "she remarked;" as, questioned, laughed, marveled, stammered, etc. s. Alter the dialogue in any magazine story you choose by substituting more minutely descriptive verbs as indicated in Question4. 6. (a) By counting the lines (so many to a column), find out what proportion of several magazine short stories is given to dialogue. (b) Would a greater or smaller proportion of dialogue improve or mar these stories? Re-write the first part of any magazine story you choose so as to tell the story almost entirely by dialogue. Write three brief dialogues, one designed to give information, one to advance the plot, and one to reveal character. 9. Revise any of your own short-stories so as to improve its dialogue. ro. Write a short-story having a simple plot, using a large proportion of dialogue. Ir. What types of stories demand a large proportion of dialogue? What sorts of stories may profitably use little? What difficulties do you find in reading conversations in dialect? Try to find examples of dialect when words are needlessly misspelled, like is for is. (a) Try to find examples in which characters talk in one style in one part of the story and in another style elsewhere. (b) Correct the fault. (a) Try to find examples in which characters talk unnaturally. (b) Correct the fault. What do you understand by colloquial speech? Illustrate by an original example how contractions and loose, easy speech may be allowed in fictional dialogue which would not be proper in a descriptive passage. Cut from a magazine an example (a) of dialogue in which the introducing or the explanatory expression (like "then he challenged") precedes the remark; (b) follows the remark;© is inserted between two parts of the remark; (d) where no explanatory expression accompanies the remark. Note the value of using a variety of styles in the same story. Find and correct an instance of misleading or of obscure dialogue in fiction. Can you think of a short-story or a novel in which the characters all talk alike, that is, not each "in character?" Note how important it is that the individuality of each character should be disclosed by the manner of his speech as well as by its matter. Write a brief short-story almost wholly in dialogue, somewhat in the style of one of Anthony Hope's "Dolly Dialogues, " or Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd's "The Misdemeanors of Nancy. " Write a paragraph criticizing, favorably or unfavorably, the dialogue in S. Weir Mitchell's "Dr. North and His Friends, " or "Concerning Isabel Carnaby, " by Ellen Thomeycroft Fowler. Category:dialog